The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

Why Machine-Writing Code is the Best (and Most Dangerous) Thing for Geospatial:   The current discourse surrounding AI coding is nothing if not polarized. On one side, the technofuturists urge us to throw away our keyboards; on the other, skeptics dismiss Large Language Models (LLMs) as little more than "fancy autocomplete" that will never replace a "real" engineer. Both sides miss the nuanced reality of the shift we are living th...

How can you accurately aggregate and compare point-based data from different parts of the world? When analyzing crime rates, population, or environmental factors, how do you divide the entire globe into equal, comparable units for analysis?   For data scientists and geospatial analysts, these are fundamental challenges. The solution lies in a powerful class of tools called Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS). These systems provide ...

The Open-Source Conundrum   Many successful open-source projects begin with passion, but the path from a community-driven tool to a sustainable business is often a trap.   The most common route—relying on high-value consulting contracts—can paradoxically lead to operational chaos. Instead of a "feast or famine" cycle, many companies find themselves with more than enough work, but this success comes at a cost: a fragmented codebase...

Open-source software is often described as "free," a cornerstone of the modern digital world available for anyone to download, use, and modify. But this perception of "free" masks a growing and invisible cost—not one paid in dollars, but in the finite attention, time, and mounting pressure placed on the volunteer and community maintainers.   This hidden tax is most acute when it comes to security.   Jody from Geocat, a long-time c...

What if communities could map their own worlds using low-cost drones and open AI models instead of waiting for expensive satellite imagery?

In this episode with Leen from HOT (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team), we explore how they're putting open mapping tools directly into...

This conversation with Jed Sundwall, Executive Director of Radiant Earth, starts with a simple but crucial distinction: the difference between data and data products. And that distinction matters more than you might think.

We dig into why so many open data portals feel like someone just threw up a bu...

Reflections from the FOSS4G 2025 conference 

 

Processing, Analysis, and Infrastructure (FOSS4G is Critical Infrastructure)

The high volume of talks on extracting meaning from geospatial data—including Python workflows, data pipelines, and automation at scale—reinforced the idea that FOSS4G represents critical infrastructure.

• AI Dominance: AI took up a lot of space at the conference. I was particularly interested in practical,...

Karl returns to the Mapscaping podcast to discuss his latest venture, Tyche Insights - a platform aimed at building a global community of geospatial storytellers working with open data.

In this conversation, we explore the evolution from his previous company, Building Footprint USA (acquired by Lightbox), to this new mission of democratizing public data storytelling.

Karl walks us through the challenges and opportunities of open da...

AI Slop: An Experiment in Discovery

Solo Episode Reflection: I'm back behind the mic after about a year-long break. Producing this podcast takes more time than you might imagine, and I was pretty burnt out. The last year brought some major life events, including moving my family back to New Zealand from Denmark, dealing with depression, burying my father, starting a new business with my wife, and having a teenage daughter in the ho...

 

Jonathan Wagner, CEO of Scribble Maps, is back on the podcast, and this time we're talking about Scribble—an AI agent he's built into his platform. Not a chatbot, an agent. There's a difference, and we get into that.

https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-business-of-web-maps/ 

So far, Scribble has access to 140 tools. It can view your map, select tools, build plugins, fetch data, and handle onboarding and customer education.

 

But h...

Exploring the Evolution and Impact of Mapillary with Ed from Meta. 

Topics include Ed's journey with Mapillary, the process of uploading and utilizing street-level imagery, and the integration with OpenStreetMap.

Ed talks about the challenges of mapping with various devices, the role of community contributions, and future potentials in mapping technology, such as using neural radiance fields (NeRFs) for creating immersive 3D scenes...

Telematics Data is Reshaping Our Understanding of Road Networks

In this episode MIT Professor Hari Balakrishnan explains how Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is transforming traditional road network analysis by layering dynamic behavioural data onto static map geometries. 

Telematics data creates "living maps" that go beyond traditional road geometry and attributes. By collecting movement data from 45 million users through phones ...

In this week’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome back Ariel Seidman, founder of HiveMapper. Ariel was my very first podcast guest back in 2019, and HiveMapper has come a long way since then!

We explore how HiveMapper has evolved from a drone-based mapping system to a cutting-edge platform collecting street-level data at a global scale. Ariel shares the challenges of scaling large-scale mapping efforts, the pivot to building their ow...

Tracking elephants in Southern Africa’s Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) region, the largest transfrontier conservation area in the world.

Lead scientist Robin Naidoo from the World Wildlife Fund-US explains the complex, cross-border collaboration required to understand elephant movements across vast landscapes and the role of GNSS.

 

Connected with Robin 

https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/robin-naidoo

 

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Today's episode touches on some pretty big topics like Imposter Syndrome, Mentorship, Career Progression, Adaptability and Diversity

Today you are going to hear two stories from two very different voices. Two brilliant people who happen to be women in geospatial. 

 

Ta Taneka

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ta-taneka/

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